How to help stop those leaks.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’ve bounced too much on the trampoline, coughed and sneezed too much or just bent down and leaked a little? Horrible to talk about but it happens.

One way to help with this is to practise and use core bracing. Any movement that increases the pressure inside your tummy can push pressure down on your pelvic floor. To help counter this you can brace the core. It’s like adjusting the tension on a trampoline so that when you jump you don’t touch the floor.

Ready, Steady, BRACE:
As you breath out draw in the lower tummy muscles (tranversus abdominus) and the pelvic floor muscles too. Your transversus abdominus muscle is below your belly button, to find it you can slide your fingers just inside your hip bones and cough. That muscle that you feel move is the one to engage. To engage your pelvic floor think about lifting the muscles around your vagina and anus. It can take a bit of practice to engage your core and pelvic floor at the same time, but persevere it will come.

Practise this when doing everyday movements and it should become a habit. So whenever you cough, sneeze, lift something, bend, bounce, push something, extend away, reach or twist you can brace the core.